So, Magic Is A Thing
by Justagenericusername
Summary: The Kidnapping of a Time-line: PART 4! Another day, another dimension. Finding myself in strange places is slowly becoming part of my day to day life - crazy I know. Once again I have been whisked off to a new universe for the next stage of my training. "Training for what?" you ask - oh, only to protect time. Rated for language and violence. (Previous parts on my page) ON HIATUS


**[AN: So I really suck for not updating this sooner. I kinda hit a large writers block and couldn't find motivation to try and get past it - thanks to jasmine for reviewing and poking me to start writing again. Seriously if I go AWOL and you guys want chapters just gimme a prod and I'll do my best to get you another chapter!]**

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Georgia: Hello my beautiful readers! And welcome to new followers Gwestiel and KittenKidnapper! Love your names by the way but WHY WOULD YOU KIDNAP KITTENS? They probably belong to someone! I am very against kidnapping, for obvious reasons, so no kitten-napping! *points sternly at camera* I don't blame you for wanting to though...they are ADORABLE!

Altaïr: *coughs* You are getting off topic.

Georgia: Right! So I am, to business; here is another chapter for you all to hopefully enjoy, I do however have a question for Jasmine a guest reviewer. What exactly made you say "why" three times? If its the lateness of this update, you can blame lack of wifi in Colonial American times as I can't send you guys my terribly written chapters without it.

Altaïr: Essentially what Georgia is trying to tell you is that any time she is gone for a significant period of time, it means we have ended up in a time without this...internet thing. Which apparently she needs to send you her story.

Georgia: Yeah basically what he said. And with that, please read!

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 **Dragons are assholes**

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I woke up to find myself with a face full of dirt and grass. Not a very pleasant way to wake up I can tell you, grass is not as tasty as cows would have you believe. I spat out as much as I could, my mouth feeling incredibly gross, and wiped away any excess filth that would come off. I'd find some water or something later, first thing was first - I needed to figure out where the hell I was this time. I sighed as I hauled myself to my feet as I thought to myself, ' _I seriously need to work on my landings cause right now I fucking suck at them_.'

Deciding to stretch out my body in an attempt to feel better was a **huge** mistake that I regretted instantly as my body howled in protest. The adrenaline from the rush of zip-lining had numbed the pain being emitted from the bruises that still covered my body, but now I had slept off both the painkillers and adrenaline that had been running through me I was feeling my injuries once again. I closed my eyes and threw my head back as I groaned in frustration, I didn't want to have to deal with pain right now. Quickly I got myself to thinking a way around this and my eyes snapped open as I realised my stupidity, I clearly did not think well after just waking up… The company had provided me with painkillers before I left, and I'd put them in my bag, so I quickly fished them out of my portal along with some water to take them with. Thank God for painkillers. I used some of the water to clean my hands while I was at it, my face could wait for now as I wasn't about to take medicine off my face or anything so no point wasting drinking water on it.

With my pain dealt with, I did a full three-sixty-degree scan of my surroundings and tried to figure out what I'd landed in this time. The scenery was closer to that of my first dimension destination than the one I'd just come from as I was standing in a small clearing inside a very green looking forest. It was all very picturesque, the late afternoon sun lighting up a delightful blue sky that hung overhead with the odd fluffy white cloud floating by every now and then. I lowered my sights back to the treeline in the hopes of catching sight of civilisation anywhere, and I gasped aloud when I finally saw more than I bargained for towering above the trees behind where the portal once was.

An honest to God castle stood before me in all its majestic splendour, nestled between the trees as if it had always belonged there with its bright red flags billowing in the wind. Wait, flags? Billowing? I scrutinised the structure carefully to find a castle that was one-hundred percent whole, gleaming with pride and presumably bustling with life. All of which led me to the conclusion that I was in medieval times. Handsome princes, damsels in distress, chivalrous knights riding their white steeds in their shining armour . . . a dream that I thoroughly wished was the case. I had learned enough about the period to know those really were fairy tales and I shouldn't expect anything of the sort.

Even if it looked amazingly beautiful from where I was standing, I grimaced at the thought of what I was about to face. Oppression from a feudal social structure, disease from the practically non existent hygiene standards, suffocating expectancies of religion, serfs and frightfully bad education. As much as I thoroughly wanted to go and inspect the magnificent architecture - while it was in full use for once and not a ruined shell - of what stood before me, knowing all that I would have to endure I was inclined to remain in the forest and camp out with my modern camping equipment. I seriously did not want to get mixed up with the medieval hierarchy given my nature, especially because of my gender.

Of course that's when my little plan went straight out of the window. As I gazed at my surroundings I saw a flurry of movement out of the corner of my eye. I turned quickly to get a better view and immediately found myself with my jaw hanging wide open in awe at the same time as freezing in place due to the sheer shock I experienced. Because emerging from the trees not far from my position were the largest wings I had ever seen beating furiously to lift a huge body off the ground to take flight. The figure swung around, facing me briefly and allowing me a full view of the magnificent creature in all its glory. A dragon. A real life dragon was taking off not even two miles from where I was standing. A flying, fire breathing reptile, a.k.a. my absolute favourite mythical creature of all time.

I had to go and see it.

At this point I didn't care if I was seen, if there was a dragon taking off in full view of passers by a few miles from a castle it meant flying creatures were not unusual in this dimension. Leading me to conclude that if I used my earthbending to make a flying skateboard type thing to catch up it wouldn't cause too much of a stir. That is if I was even seen, after all most people don't look up generally.

My decision made, I quickly pulled a bunch of earth from beneath me a fashioned a board out of the compact dirt – not as sturdy as a rock one would have been, but good enough. I moved my ride upwards until I had cleared the treeline, then thrust my hands backwards to gradually accelerate myself towards the creature that was flying away from the castle. Which made sense, it wasn't going to live near people – especially a castle of them – even if dragons were accepted in society they wouldn't be allowed to live in close quarters to people given their huge size. Of course there was also the **small** issue of their fire-breathing too…

But back to the matter at hand, I was chasing down a dragon, as you do. Gradually I gained ground on the beast, and as I did I realised something very important – this creature was **massive**. I'm talking the biggest living thing I had ever seen. I spotted one of its talons on its left hind leg and my eyes widened involuntarily with fear – it was easily the size of my arm! Within seconds I knew that, even with my earthbending and gun, I stood absolutely no chance against it in a fight. ' _Better stay on its good side…'_

I continued on my path, eyes fixated on its darkly shaded scaly body as I moved my way up from tail to head. Unfortunately, the dragon beat its massive wings at just the wrong time for me, as I was flying past them when they came down causing me to be buffeted by the vortex of wind created. I struggled to hold my line of flight as the wind pressed down on me from all angles, the force would have knocked me off my board had I not quickly fashioned straps of dirt to fasten my feet down.

"Shit!" Swearing violently, I fought against the downwash that I had been forced into by the dragon, it was just one issue after another for me. Thankfully the creature had begun another cycle and the intense downward force was lifted, allowing me to swiftly manoeuvre myself out of harms way to end up near the dragon's head. I found myself unable to take my eyes off of the colossal yet somehow elegant being as its body flowed through the air gracefully. "Bloody hell, a real live dragon. Amazing! You must be really quite old to be so large," I breathed in awe as I drunk in the sight, committing as many details to memory as I could manage. "And to think, most people think they are myths…"

Out of nowhere the blazing yellowy eye rolled lazily to fix its piercing gaze on me and the dragon spoke – actually spoke! Its deep voice started quietly, but rumbled louder like a building wave until it could be fully heard, making my hair stand on end as it sent a shiver down my body.

"Myths we most certainly are not, human. Do I look a myth to you?" His voice spoke volumes about him somehow, it told me he was old as I had predicted and with that age came great depths of wisdom – wisdom I could not possibly comprehend as an insignificant human. Because, boy, did I feel insignificant next to him. With those few words he made me feel little more than an inconvenient speck of dirt on one of his scales. I was next to nothing in his eye. Unimportant, miniscule and unintelligent summed me up in his opinion. Frankly, at the time, I believed he thought me his next meal.

"Wait, you - you talk?!" I asked completely baffled, though why I asked such a stupid question when I clearly knew the answer I will **never** know.

"Of course. You just heard as such, so why ask such a question.

"I – well – not sure really to be honest… It was a bit dumb, wasn't it?" I shrugged casually, like it was a totally normal thing to be having a conversation with a dragon, flying through the air, in medieval times. Well, normal can never really be used to describe my life any more to be honest, so I suppose in a way it was normal.

The dragon eyed me curiously – or at least I think it was curiously, it was hard to tell – making me slightly nervous as it somewhat looked like he was inspecting his next meal.

"Please don't eat me…" my quiet voice almost begging as I shrank back from the hugely intimidating beast. He laughed wildly at my little plea for my life, which made me feel slightly insulted because it wasn't that much of a leap to assume he was viewing me as his next snack.

"I am not going to eat you young one." I swear, it looked like he was grinning at me, **grinning** I tell you. Dragons don't grin! At least they didn't as far as I knew. "Follow me," he said simply before diving down to the barely visible forest below. I was taken by surprise by this and so it took me a moment to register what was going on then follow him back down to stand on solid ground.

If anything actually standing next to the great dragon only made me feel even smaller as he towered over me, but then standing easily at the height of a building I bet he made everyone feel that way. I gingerly cleared my throat to ask him a question that had been on my mind the whole way down, "so why exactly did you want to talk to me?" He opened his mouth and his voice began doing that strange pre-echoey thing when I barrelled on to ask questions that I'd been pondering since I face planted the annoyingly green grass in this dimension. Realising that I had only asked him the question because it was polite, yes I was actually trying to be polite to a dragon, I figured it wasn't worth waiting for an answer to a gesture he probably wouldn't even appreciate. "Wait, actually stuff that, I've got a question for you, where the heck am I? Also, do you by chance have a name, dragon?"

I was beginning to understand the dragon's facial expression better by this point, so could tell that he was well and truly miffed that I had interrupted him. Clearly this dragon thought himself to be oh so important and far above the likes of me, because once over his shock his eyes narrowed with annoyance mixed in with light contempt. "Many call me The Great Dragon, my name however, is Kilgharrah."

' _Damn,'_ I thought to myself as he paused, ' _that right there is a badass name. Too bad the owner of it seems to be an actual ass.'_ Why did such an insanely cool creature have to have such a crummy attitude?

"How is it that you do not know where you are? Surely you travelled with the knowledge of your destination." Kilgharrah looked as perplexed as he sounded when questioning me, not that I blamed him. Its not exactly normal for someone to randomly ask you for the date – including the year – and the name of the town they were in along with which country that was in, because they genuinely had no clue. I knew that I was going to receive a lot of confused looks in the future and many people believing I had lost my mind.

"No, I'm just travelling wherever my feet take me," I replied after some quick thinking for an at least half plausible reason for my lack of knowledge. Not my best work but given the period I figured I could just about get away with it. "So no, I don't know where I am, please just tell me."

"If his density is fulfilled, you are in the land of The Once and Future King. This is the Kingdom of Camelot." The dragon was being rather overdramatic for my liking, I mean – "The Once and Future King" fulfilling his "destiny" was going a bit over the top in my opinion.

' _Hold on a second, did he say Camelot, as in the legend of King Arthur and his knights of the round table Camelot?'_

"No. Way. I'm seriously in Camelot?" I'd heard and read about the legend, of course I had, I couldn't think of anyone I knew off the top of my head that didn't know of it to some degree at least. It wasn't my favourite legend, no that title went to the legend of Robin Hood - especially the BBC series version, even if they did kill him – but I still thoroughly enjoyed it. "So wait, is – is that King Arthur's castle?" I asked as I indicated vaguely in the direction we had come from.

"What do you know of the Once and Future King?" He was beginning to look at me with a mixture of suspiciousness and curiosity that had me slightly on edge.

"No no no no no, answer my question and I'll answer yours. Is that seriously his castle back there?"

"Yes it is. Now I refuse to answer any more of your questions until you respond to some of mine." I raised my eyebrows at his ultimatum, not that I blamed him really because I had been asking rather a lot of questions.

"Okay, what do you wanna know?" I asked hesitantly, because at the same time as I wanted to know what his questions were, I really didn't want to know. What if he asked things I shouldn't answer? I mean, he was intelligent but given the time period would time travel be comprehendible, let alone cross his mind? But then wasn't magic supposed to exist in the legend of Arthur? So what kind of things would this presumably magical being know?

"What is your name young one? Where are you from?" After being so crazily tense about the serious questions he could have asked me, I was surprised by such standard inquires so stammered slightly when I finally spoke.

"Um, I'm Georgia and I come from, er, London." I mentally cringed at my choice of where to call home, could I really not have thought of a better place? London might not even have been built, I didn't know. If I remember correctly it was created by Romans, who existed before medieval times, but they may not have existed in this dimension. ' _Ugh I should have just made up a place and said it was a small unknown town,'_ I gave myself a large mental facepalm.

"That is a long distance for you to travel… One moment, you said your name was Georgia? Tell me, what is the rest of your name traveller?" By this point he was giving me an incredibly strange look that I wasn't able to place and as he asked his question I couldn't help but wonder what was so important about my name…

"Sorry, the rest of my name? Why the heck do you need to know that? I'm not important, I am a nobody, a mere peasant." I could not understand what this ancient creature hoped to gain from learning my surname of all things. Maybe he thought I was from a noble family or something. He didn't respond to either my questions or comment about my status, just looked at me expectantly so I gave up and decided there was little to no harm in him learning my full name.

"Aaronson," I told him shortly. A bit of an odd surname, but one that was quite handy at times when registers and such were in alphabetical order, it meant I was always first.

The dragon looked positively floored momentarily, an expression that quickly shifted to mild shock and then complete fascination. "You are The Guardian of Time . . . I was expecting someone more impressive." At that comment my previously calm temperament snapped - I mean seriously, who says things like that to a person's face?! My verbal filter vanished in a second as I lost my temper and gave him a bit of a verbal battering.

"Well I am **oh** **so TERRIBLY** **sorry** I am not **impressive** enough for his Oh So Grand and Wise Dragon. I truly wish that I lived up to the high expectations of your mind-blowingly amazingly magnificent self and you have my **heartfelt** apologies for disappointing you so spectacularly. Please, do tell me what I can do to make it up to your greatness." I made a show of gradually upping the dramatics with each sentence until I finished my remarks grovelling on the ground in front of the beast, a beast that was looking down at me in every meaning of the phrase.

Kilgharrah gave a long exasperated sigh at my dramatics and shook his head slightly, probably in disbelief as I doubted behaviour like mine was common in this era. "Must you have such attitude towards me?" he said irksomely.

"Well maybe if you didn't continually insult and belittle me you would find I am a much more pleasant individual," I told him as I picked myself up off the ground to stand tall. I wasn't sure why but I did want to impress this dragon, and to do that I needed to be as confident as I could manage. "Why would I be friendly and polite when you haven't exactly been so far since I met you!"

We stood glaring at each other for a few moments before I got fed up with the situation, this was getting me nowhere and I had learned all I really needed to from the dragon. Without saying another word, I spun around and stomped off into the woods at the edge of the clearing he had brought me too. A clearing I only registered as I stormed off – I really needed to pay better attention to my surroundings…

"Where are you going Guardian?" Kilgharrah roared after me aggressively. He spoke so loudly that I probably would have felt it through the earth even without my gift.

I glared at him over my shoulder as I continued walked to yell at him, "far away from you! Where else?" Unfortunately, I was so preoccupied with giving the source of my irritation my best death glare I could muster, I totally failed to notice the person walking out of the woods until I slammed straight into them. Stumbling backwards a few steps my frustration grew further and I snapped, "watch where you are going!"

"I think you'll find it was you who needed to look where they were going," an amused male voice replied and I looked towards them to see an equally amused smile on his rather handsome face. He looked to be around my age and sported the unusual pairing of blue eyes and black hair that was short, thick and messy. Although his most notable feature was probably his ears, which stuck out slightly more than most in comparison to his long face. Overall it gave the impression of a fairly cheeky young man, albeit with a questionable sense in style given the strange red neckerchief he wore. I got a good vibe from him and had a sense that we would get on well enough that we could be friends if I actually lived here.

"You're right, I should have watch where I was going, sorry for walking into you. You're okay, right?" His smile widened as he told me he was fine so I nodded and walked passed him bidding him a good day as I went by.

"Wait!" Slightly surprised I paused and faced him to see both dragon and man observing me, oddly the latter with a very hopeful expression on his face. "Are – are you... Do you have…" He stopped and collected his thoughts for a moment, you could see him trying to find a way to phrase his question. Whatever it was he hoped for me to answer it was clearly important to him. "You weren't scared by the dragon?" he asked indicating to the looming creature.

"Er, well I was really worried he was going to eat me for a while there, but not really I guess. I mean, he told me he wasn't going to eat me and maybe I was too trusting but I believed him. Mostly I find him incredibly annoying." He gestured for me to carry on explaining when I stopped, so I cautiously continued to explain, "at first I was just curious about it, I'd never seen a dragon before so went to look. Then it spoke to me and we kinda had a conversation, I mean he's scary and intimidating yeah, but I don't think he's going to kill me so . . . not scared. Should I be? You don't seem to be worried."

"I'm unusual in that way, most people are terrified by the sight of a dragon. There was an attack on Camelot by one not too long ago and it has left a very negative view of them." For some reason as he spoke of the attack he looked behind him towards Kilgharrah which made me suspect he had something to do with said attack. Not that I was entirely surprised by that fact, although I wasn't exactly keen on the dragon at that time so I might have been biased.

"I didn't know there was a dragon attack, I might not have been so keen to approach him if I had known," I looked at Kilgharrah pointedly and he snarled at me in response. The young man looked back and forth between us, contemplating carefully. I took that as my cue to leave so said, "anyway, it was nice meeting you but I've got to go so, goodbye."

"Before you go, what is your name?" I quickly introduced myself in the hopes I could leave before the dragon decided to input anything, thankfully he responded before such an occurrence. "Hi Georgia, I'm Merlin." I felt my face scrunch up in confusion as I heard him say his name. **This** was Merlin? As per usual my filter vanished and my mouth decided to have a mind of its own.

"Wait, **what**? You don't mean… Not **the** Merlin surely? No way. You can't be Merlin. Merlin is supposed to be an old man, with a long white beard and hair. He's supposed to have a big pointy hat and robes with stars all over them. Not to mention a large stick thing that I think is a magical staff. He's not supposed to be a young guy with a strange neck thingy and long fluffy socks!"

Merlin gave a very confused laugh. "Star covered robes and a pointy hat? And you had an issue with my neckerchief and socks? Socks that are very comfortable by the way and in no way **fluffy**."

"Okay socks I can understand, cause foot comfort is very important, especially if you have to do a lot of walking and moving around, but the weird neckerchief thing…" I made a scrunched up face to demonstrate my distaste towards the garment, because even though it kinda worked for him it was a neckerchief – **neckerchief!** Sorry to all neckerchief wearers if I offend you but I just really don't like the things. God knows how people can stand to wear them, they would get in my way all the time and piss me off.

"Your journey to fulfil your destiny has begun young Traveller, and my part is played. Merlin, she is your responsibility from now, guide her well." With those words that made little to no sense the dragon beat its massive wings and flew off into the night, his huge silhouette passing across the moon in an ominous manner.

"Well that was super clear and helpful."

"He rarely is, you get used to it everntually," Merlin shrugged at my irritated expression before walking back the way he entered the clearing. "So where are you staying while you are here?" he asked once I followed him.

"I'm not staying anywhere, I only arrived in Camelot toady. Besides, I can't stay anywhere except the woods, I haven't got any money." Merlin shot me a confused look, which made sense because it was unusual to travel with no money. I quickly wracked my brains for a plausible reason for my situation. "I, er, spent everything I had on the way here. That's why I'm here actually, I'm looking for work."

"I can help you out if you'd like? Maybe I could get you a position in the castle, I think there are a few positions available," he mused more to himself than talking to me. "Did Jeffery leave yet? I wonder if they need more help in the kitchen…"

"Really? You'd do that for a total stranger?" I asked slightly shocked he was so willing to help me out. But then Merlin was supposed to be a kind hearted and helpful person, so I shouldn't have been that surprised by his offer.

"Of course I'd help you, why wouldn't I?" he asked grinning broadly at me.

"I have a very pessimistic and cynical view of people in general, so I assume the worst." Can you blame me though? After all the only reason I was even here was because I had been kidnapped and threatened until I agreed to this craziness willingly. "Besides how often do people go out of their way to help you?" Merlin turned to me and opened his mouth to answer but I put my hand up to stop him. "It was a rhetorical question Merlin, you don't actually have to answer, you're just supposed to think about it."

We continued walking in silence after that but it was pretty dark by this point and I could barely see where I was going. It wasn't long before I'd badly stubbed my toe on the trunk of a fallen tree and was swearing loudly at my clumsiness and lack of vision.

"Damned stupid tree," I growled.

"It's not the tree's fault," Merlin snickered at my misfortune. I simply replied with mocking his sentence in a whiny, moan like noise and a few insults under my breath. "How old are you?"

"I'm none-of-your-damn-business years old, why do you need to know?"

"Because you are currently acting like a child, that's why. Are you sure you are an adult?" I glared at him, although I'm not sure how well he could see me as I could just about make out his face in the dim light from the moon. He seemed to see enough to stop his current train of conversation at least, "we are almost there so stop complaining." My only response was incoherent grumbling and stalking off ahead of him to where I could see the glow of the city's lights.

As great as my stalking off skills are, Merlin soon caught up with me due to me slowing right down to gaze up in awe at the castle that was so much more impressive up close. The walls towered over me and I could just about hear the clanging of the armour the patrolling knights were wearing.

"Impressive isn't it?" Merlin said to me as he noticed my expression. I nodded absentmindedly in agreement before he nudged me along telling me we needed to get moving.

He led me around the walls of the castle until we reached entrance to the city in the form of a large stone archway that had guards littered around it. Guards that called out to Merlin as we approached, it seemed he was very well acquainted with them so I guessed he went out at this sort of time a lot, as well as jokingly scolding him for staying out so late – definitely was out this late often. He told them he was running an errand for Gaius which seemed to work as we were let through without being questioned any further.

"Who's Gaius?" I asked curiously as we weaved our way through the through the dimly lit streets, always heading at least slightly uphill. Although I wasn't sure you could call them streets really as they weren't paved in any way, pure mud – it was a good thing I was still dressed in my Dauntless gear and not any flimsy shoes or they would be ruined.

"He's the court physician and a very good friend of mine," Merlin informed me with a warm smile – it was clear he meant a lot to him, "I'm his apprentice as well as the Prince's man-servant."

"Hang on, you're a man servant?" I asked in a fair amount of surprise. Merlin, **the** great magician, was the Prince's servant! What? That wasn't right, not at all, he was supposed to be the court magician, not an apprentice physician! I might have been dropped into Camelot but it certainly wasn't the one I thought it would be, this dimension must have been an alternate version of the legend I knew of…

"Yes. I am. Do you have a problem with that?"

"No. No. Not at all. It's just…" I thought carefully about why that would be a surprise to me as I didn't want to offend this kind young man that was being so nice to me. "How does a servant come to know a dragon? I thought you were some sort of important person."

"Important? Me? Sorry to disappoint you but I'm not. You seem to know me though, what was it you said; "starry robes and a pointy hat"? Where did you hear that? Are you sure it wasn't a different person?"

"Hmm, maybe. It could be a coincidence that you are also called Merlin, is your name a common one?"

"Well, no, I don't think so…"

"Well then I suppose someone else decided to be Merlin too and that kid grew up to be a great magician who wears starry robes and a pointy hat as the court magician." Merlin grabbed my shoulder and pulled me to a stop suddenly.

"There is a kingdom where magic is accepted enough that they have a court magician?" he asked excitedly. "Do you know where?"

"Erm, no, I don't because the location was never really mentioned." Lies. More lies. I lied through my teeth because this was supposedly Camelot and the Prince was apparently called Arthur. "Look, can we drop it now please? We have established that most of what I was told was a pack of lies so there is no point picking out all the different bits that were wrong."

"Okay, okay, I give in! I'll stop asking you about it, I promise." Merlin continued guiding me through the streets heading in the general direction of the castle, which I assumed was our destination so I was surprised when he suddenly decided to stop at a small house. I almost strode right past it so had to double back a little when I realised what had happened. Merlin must have read my mind or something because he answered my unsaid question as he knocked on the wooden door by telling me this is where I would be staying the night, apparently the house belonged to a good friend of his.

The door opened and a beautiful woman with chocolate coloured eyes with matching hair that fell in ringlets greeted Merlin confusedly, which was understandable given the hour we were dropping by unannounced. It was because of that I was slightly surprised by how well put together she looked, still having her hair done and wearing a lavender coloured dress that complemented her caramel skin. "Merlin? What are you doing here? And who is that behind you?" she queried looking around him at me. I gave a little wave of greeting with a small smile with that she returned kindly.

"This is Georgia," Merlin unnecessarily gestured towards me, "she just arrived in Camelot and needs somewhere to stay for the night. She is looking for work and spent all her money getting here. Would she be able to stay with you? I would take her to the castle if I knew there was room for her."

"Of course she can stay with me! Come on in," she opened the door wider and stood aside to let us pass. I followed Merlin into the stone floored house that was essentially one large room with the opposite end screened off from the main room, just in front of the screen was a low single bed. Despite the coldness of the stone floor and clay walls it had an amazingly homely feel to it, the wooden dining table took up most of the room but was complimented by smaller tables with vegetables and some delightfully scented flowers arranged on them. I felt the heat of the small fire burning away on the right side of my body and smiled softly to myself, I had always loved having fires in the house and it reminded me of all the times my mum insisted on lighting one because she was "feeling a bit chilly".

"My name is Guinevere but most people call me Gwen, pleasure to meet you Georgia," she said as she closed the door and walked over to me offering her hand to shake. I happily accepted her offer and thanked her for allowing me to stay in her home, making sure to say how grateful I was. It was likely she was a servant like Merlin and therefore didn't have much to spare for me, this was proven as she went on to say, "I'm sorry but I only have one bed so you'll have to sleep on the flood, I hope that is okay. I have some warm chicken soup you can have though."

"That's not a problem at all, I am grateful for anything you can spare me and would love some chicken soup." I smiled warmly as she gestured for me to sit on the bench like seat of the dining table and offered Merlin a bowl too that he accepted with enthusiasm as he sat next to me.

"Gwen is an amazing cook, you're going to love her soup," he said far too animatedly for this time of night. Frankly I was hungry enough to eat anything by this point since I'd barely touched my food from dinner when I was in Dauntless HQ, so despite not liking chicken soup I wolfed it down within minutes.

I leaned back with a satisfied sigh when I was finished and found I was receiving mildly surprised looks from both of my tablemates at the speed I had finished my meal. "I guess I was hungrier than I thought," I explained smiling sheepishly at them both. Gwen quietly giggled before she went back to eating giving Merlin a chance to comment as I was coming to expect from the young man.

"I told you that you would love her soup," he grinned as he nudged my shoulder. I rolled my eyes and returned his grin.

"Yes, you did tell me. I take it that means you take advantage of Gwen's hospitality frequently then?" I wiggled my eyebrows and gave him a returning nudge causing him to choke slightly on the mouthful he had just taken and Gwen blushed furiously at my teasing.

"No. Its not like that. I don't. I wouldn't do that. We're just good friends that's all," he managed to stutter after he recovered enough to speak. I giggled and reassured him I was teasing. "I knew that…" he muttered as he went back to his soup.

"So where are you from Georgia?" Gwen asked swiftly moving the conversation on. It was a predictable question and one I should have seen coming really, but it didn't stop my mind doing is usual panicking blank moment as I struggled to recall the location I had said less than an hour ago.

"London. I come from London," I said mentally face palming myself. How did I forget that so quickly? I blamed lack of sleep, I'd been up a rather long time by this point given the time change from my dimension travel. I don't think getting knocked out by face planting the ground at high speed counts as sleep. "I'm here looking for work," I told her, the words falling out of my mouth before I could stop them. I was nanoseconds from slamming my head into the table at this point, Merlin had said that only ten minutes ago! "I got fired from my old job in London and decided I needed a change of scenery," I quickly tagged on to my other statement to cover up my idiocy.

"Oh, what was your previous job?" Gwen politely inquired.

 _'And look at that, there I go putting my foot in it once again. God damn it Georgia get your shit together!'_ I chastised myself internally before replying with the first thing I could think of that I could plausibly get away with, "I was a maid." Gwen simply nodded in acknowledgement while I continued my mental conversation with myself. _'A maid? They clean stuff and cook or something, don't they? That works, I did a lot of household chores when I was younger so I can get away with pretending I was a maid…'_

"Were you a maid for anyone of significance? Anyone worth mentioning?" Merlin inquired, probably to try and help me get a new job here.

"Sadly not," I replied, "just a part of a low level Lord's household." That sounded about the right kind of thing to say in my opinion… It seemed to work as there were no further questions and just idle chat between the old friends that I just listened in on, something about a Sir Gwaine and Percival getting in trouble for stealing food from the kitchen once again that sounded very amusing.

It was a very short time later that Merlin left us to get some sleep, saying he would return for me tomorrow morning and that I could help him and Gaius until he found me a position. We bid him goodbye and Gwen showed me an area behind one of the screens that I could sleep in, she apologised again that it wasn't much – just a few thick blankets and sacks of grain or similar to lie on – but I was grateful all the same as it was warm and indoors. Besides if it was really that bad I could always fish out my sleeping bag that was . . . somewhere in my little dimension.

"Oh I almost forgot, I'll get you something to wash your face with," she said kindly before walking back to the kitchen. I vaguely heard cupboards opening and closing while I had another small conversation with myself.

 _'Wash my face with?'_ I questioned to myself. _'Why would I need . . . oh! Right! I never found that water to clean the mud off my face. Oh god I must look a mess right now. Why did nobody mention it before?!'_

I thanked her as she returned to hand me a damp cloth, making a light joke about falling over in mud and being the clumsiest person in Camelot. She laughed but I think it was more politeness than actually finding me amusing, with that she left me to my own devices and took herself to bed after pulling the dividing curtain behind her.

I speedily rubbed all the mud off me, feeling a fair bit fresher once I had done so but still not exactly clean – oh how I wish I still had access to a shower. Sighing slightly, I took off my shoes, crawled into the pile of blankets and pulled my hair out of its ponytail. It felt like I had been tied up for days and it was bliss to feel it hang loose again, I quickly pulled the hairband onto my wrist and snuggled down for a night sleep. As I lay there I chuckled softly, it had just clicked the this was the Guinevere from the legend - the woman destined to marry Arthur but love Lancelot – and yet here she was also just a servant still. It seemed that while I **was** in Camelot, I most certainly wasn't in the legend.

* * *

Georgia: So, turns out Dragons are cryptic pains in the arse.

Altaïr: Stop generalising.

Georgia: Its not generalising if there aren't many - if any - other dragons in existence and he happens to be a cryptic pain is the arse!

Altaïr: *looks blankly at Georgia* You once told me that there are an infinite number of dimensions and now you are trying to tell me Dragons only exist in one of them? I fail to see your logic here.

Georgia: That...You...It...Shut up Altaïr. You're supposed to be the one who doesn't understand any of this.

Altaïr: *rolls eyes* Well said.

Georgia: *sigh* Lets move on, I don't feel like arguing right now anyway. I hope you all enjoyed the chapter, I'll see you soon!


End file.
